Nanoparticles assisted intra and transdermic delivery of antifungal ointment: an updated review.

This review paper highlights the trans-dermic delivery of nanoparticles (NPs) based antifungal ointments with the help of nanotechnology. It also describes the novel trans-dermal approach utilizing various nanoparticles which enables an efficient delivery to the target site. This current review gives an overview about past research and developments as well as the current nanoparticle-based ointments. This review also presents data regarding types, causes of infection, and different pathogens within their infection site. It also gives information about antifungal ointments with their activity and side effects of antifungal medicines. Additionally, this review also focuses on the future aspects of the topical administration of nanoparticle-based antifungal ointments. These nanoparticles can encapsulate multiple antifungal drugs as a combination therapy targeting different aspects of fungal infection. Nanoparticles can be designed in such a way that they can specifically target fungal cells and do not affect healthy cells. Nanoparticle based antifungal ointments exhibit outstanding potential to treat fungal diseases. As further research and advancements evolve in nanotechnology, we expect more development of nanoparticle-based antifungal formulations shortly. This paper discusses all the past and future applications, recent trends, and developments in the various field and also shows its bright prospective in the upcoming years.

Paper-Based Flexible Nanoparticle Hybrid Substrate for Qualitative and Quantitative Analysis of Melamine in Powder Milk by SERS.

Melamine is a chemical compound that is added to dairy products to increase the apparent protein content for higher profit margins. However, extended consumption of melamine can cause health risks. The SERS technique has proven to be an important tool for detecting small compounds, such as melamine. Here, a paper-based flexible nanoparticles (NPs)-hybrid SERS substrate was designed by drop-casting pegylated gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) on the filter papers. In SERS characterization, this substrate exhibited an enhancement factor of 108 and a limit of detection (LOD) as low as 10-8 M for Rhodamine 6G dye. Furthermore, we successfully utilized these substrates to detect the melamine spiked milk sample with an LOD as low as 0.01 ppm. This hybrid SERS substrate offers a low-cost, biocompatible, and easy-to-use fabrication for large-scale production, which may be widely used in food safety applications.

Facile Titrimetric Assay of Lysophosphatidic Acid in Human Serum and Plasma for Ovarian Cancer Detection.

Herein, an instrument free facile acid-base titrimetric methodology is reported for lysophosphatidic acid (LPA) measurement in serum and plasma samples for ovarian cancer detection. The concept is based on the titrimetric method in which alkaline solution was titrated with free fatty acid. Free fatty acid is generated due to action of the lysophospholipase to LPA. A phospholipid derivative known as LPA can function as a signaling molecule. A glycerol backbone serves as the foundation for phosphatidic acid, which also has bonds to an unsaturated fatty acid at carbon-1, a hydroxyl group at carbon-2, and a phosphate molecule at carbon-3. Free fatty acid and glycerol-3-phosphate are formed when LPA reacts with lysophospholipase. The formation of free fatty acid depends on the concentration of LPA. The standard graph of known concentrations of LPA, LPA spiked serum and LPA spiked plasma was plotted. The concentration of LPA in unknown serum and plasma were calculated from the standard graph. The limit of detection of LPA in spiked serum and plasma samples via titrimetric assay was calculated as 0.156 µmol/L. A patient's chance of survival may be outweighed by an early diagnosis of ovarian cancer.

A chitosan gold nanoparticles molecularly imprinted polymer based ciprofloxacin sensor.

In this work, we present a novel study on the development of an electrochemical biomimetic sensor to detect the ciprofloxacin (CIP) antibiotic. A chitosan gold nanoparticles decorated molecularly imprinted polymer (Ch-AuMIP) was used to modify the glassy carbon electrode (GCE) for preparation of the sensor. The Ch-AuMIP was characterized to understand various properties like chemical composition, morphology, roughness, and conduction using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), atomic force microscopy (AFM) and cyclic voltammetry (CV) respectively. Several experimental conditions affecting the Ch-AuMIP/GCE sensor such as the CIP removal agent, the extraction time, the volume of Ch-AuMIP drop-cast onto GCE and the rebinding time were studied and optimized. The Ch-AuMIP sensor sensitivity was studied in the concentration range of 1-100 µmol L-1 exhibiting a limit of detection of 210 nmol L-1. The synergistic combination of Au nanoparticles and Ch-MIP helps detect the CIP antibiotic with good sensitivity and selectivity, respectively. We investigated the selectivity aspect by using some possible interfering species and the developed sensing system showed good selectivity for CIP with a 66% response compared to the other compounds (≤45% response). The proposed sensing strategy showed its applicability for successful detection of CIP in real samples like tap water, mineral water, milk, and pharmaceutical formulation. The developed sensor showed good selectivity towards CIP even among the analogue molecules of Norfloxacin (NFX) and Ofloxacin (OFX). The developed sensor was successfully applied to determine the CIP in different samples with a satisfactory recovery in the range of 94 to 106%.

Molecularly imprinted polymers as receptors for assays of antibiotics.

The use of excessive antibiotics in medical treatment and animal breeding has led to their prevalence in the environment and foods. Thereby, rapid, cheap, and sustainable techniques are required to detect and control the potential risk related to antibiotics. Actually, immunoassays have wide applications for this purpose, and improved assay formats with enzymatic, fluorescent, nanodispersed, and other tracers have enhanced the efficiency of the technique. However, there are several shortcomings of immunoassay due to the protein nature of antibodies. Thereby, molecular imprinting technology has evolved as growing artificial analytical receptor for molecular recognition with binding properties similar to natural antibodies. Molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) are defined as "plastibodies" or substitutes for antibodies in immunoassays. This review gives a general overview of the application of molecular imprinting to analytical systems, its state of art, and perspective. The application of MIP-based assays in the detection of antibiotics in food and environmental samples is explored herein.

Design, synthesis and validation of anti-microbial coumarin derivatives: An efficient green approach.

An ecofriendly itinerary for the synthesis of newly substituted chromene-3-carboxamide derivatives was undertaken to avoid impurities, usage of toxic solvents, toxic catalyst, and having improved quantitative yields. The green synthesis involves the condensation of substituted salicylaldehyde with N-(substituted)phenyl malonic acid in the presence of a base catalyst, piperidine. All reported compounds were assessed for their antimicrobial activities which clearly suggested their therapeutic implications to address antimicrobial pathogenesis. The synthesized coumarin compounds were examined for their antimicrobial activity against 7 fungal strains and 2 bacterial strains at concentration 125-1000 µg/mL. In particular, the compounds 4 and 5 showed lower minimum inhibitory concentration value (125 µg/mL) against maximum microbial strains. Further, docking of all the synthesized compounds was performed with the enzymes lanosterol 14α-demethylase and glucosamine-6-phosphate synthase and a significant binding affinity was observed which supports in vivo antimicrobial study. In addition, the thermal analysis revealed good thermal stability of compounds up to 250 °C. The compounds showed abroad absorption spectrum between 280-550 nm establishing them to be good UV absorbers.

Facile green synthesis and applications of silver nanoparticles: a state-of-the-art review.

In the field of nanotechnology, the development of reliable and eco-friendly methods for the synthesis of NPs is crucial. The conventional methods for the synthesis of NPs are costly, toxic, and not ecofriendly. To overcome these issues, natural sources such as plant, bacteria, fungi, and biopolymers have been used to synthesize AgNPs. These natural sources act as reducing and capping agents. The shape, size, and applications of AgNPs are prominently affected by the reaction parameters under which they are synthesized. Accessible distributed data on the synthesis of AgNPs include the impact of different parameters (temperature and pH), characterization techniques (DLS, UV-vis, FTIR, XRD, SEM, TEM and EDX), properties and their applications. This review paper discusses all the natural sources such as plants, bacteria, fungi, and biopolymers that have been used for the synthesis of AgNPs in the last ten years. AgNPs synthesized by green methods have found potential applications in a wide spectrum of areas including drug delivery, DNA analysis and gene therapy, cancer treatment, antimicrobial agents, biosensors, catalysis, SERS and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). The current limitations and future prospects for the synthesis of inorganic nanoparticles by green methods are also discussed herein.

Water-compatible 'aspartame'-imprinted polymer grafted on silica surface for selective recognition in aqueous solution.

Molecularly imprinted polymers selective for aspartame have been prepared using N-[2-ammonium-ethyl-piperazinium) maleimidopropane sulfonate copolymer bearing zwitterionic centres along the backbone via a surface-confined grafting procedure. Aspartame, a dipeptide, is commonly used as an artificial sweetener. Polymerisation on the surface was propagated by means of Michael addition reaction on amino-grafted silica surface. Electrostatic interactions along with complementary H-bonding and other hydrophobic interactions inducing additional synergetic effect between the template (aspartame) and the imprinted surface led to the formation of imprinted sites. The MIP was able to selectively and specifically take up aspartame from aqueous solution and certain pharmaceutical samples quantitatively. Hence, a facile, specific and selective technique using surface-grafted specific molecular contours developed for specific and selective uptake of aspartame in the presence of various interferrants, in different kinds of matrices is presented.

Synthesis, characterization and photoluminescence study of novel sulfobetaine polyelectrolytes.

A novel sulfobetaine copolymer is developed via polycondensation approach. The comonomers, melamine, condenses with a diketone, 5,5-dimethyl-1,3-cyclohexane (dimedone) to produce polyimine chain based on Schiff base chemistry. Dimedone-[N,N' melaminium] propane sulfonate copolymer crystals were obtained on treatment of the polyimine with sulfopropylating agent, 1,3-propane sultone with a crosslinker, di(ethylene glycol diacrylate) (DEGDA). This crosslinked sulfobetaine polymer yielded fine needle like single crystals and shows strong blue fluorescence and a week green phosphorescence. Multi-exponential fluorescence decay function indicates the presence of different conformers both in solution and crystalline phase. This easy straightforward protocol for synthesis of crystalline, soluble, and luminescent polymer could prove to be a landmark in development of next generation smart functional materials.